A stretchy pants worthy Thanksgiving feast

Since moving into our new home in Washington, DC last week, my family of three has been settling in, unpacking boxes and hanging pictures in preparation for celebrating the holidays in our new digs. As if becoming first-time homeowners isn’t exciting enough, we are hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner which has left me in a state of unadulterated, total foodie happiness. I’ve been planning the details for weeks and plotting my cooking schedule vigilantly. The grocery shopping started last week. I took Davis with me to buy our first round of Thankgiving ingredients and most importantly, our first turkey. We walked away with a monster turkey and my little boy grinning ear-to-ear as he looked at the frozen bird in our cart.

In fact, why am I blogging right now and not cooking?

Thanksgiving was always my dad’s favorite holiday probably because it was a day devoted to eating.

And eating.

And then eating some more.

In fact, he even had special pants he wore on Thanksgiving. He would pull out his favorite “stretchy” pants (worn with a sweater and collared shirt of course), buried in his closet from the last Thanksgiving and sigh with happiness knowing that a food fiesta awaited. He could rest assured that his favorite “stretchy” pants would not fail him as the waist band could expand as he ate with abandon and pure joy.

You can imagine that I am wishing my dad was here to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in our new house and the first Thanksgiving dinner I am cooking. I know he would have been in the kitchen “sampling” along with Dan and Davis as the cooking went on Wednesday into Thursday. He would have supervised the roasting of the enormous turkey from the living room while watching football and cursing the Cowboys.

So I am setting out to make my dad proud and cooking a “stretchy” pants worthy Thanksgiving dinner.  I won't lie either; I am considering resurrecting my old maternity pants with the elastic waist-band from the attic.

I’ll be sure to post pictures of the food right after Thanksgiving but for now, here is my menu for the big day. I’ve made most of these recipes before with the exception of the salad. A lot of them are adapted or taken straigh from my favorite food magazines.  I like to experiment but I feel like Thanksgiving is not a time to mess around and potentially have a kitchen debacle. 

Back to cooking!  I may even try to brine my turkey if the big bird unthaws in time. Oh, so much to look forward to in the next 48 hours! Am I a nerd that I am excited to brine a turkey? Of course I am.  Oh well, so be it.

The kitchen can't handle me right now!

Colleen’s Thanksgiving Day Menu
(Any dish with an asterisk has a recipe included below)

First Course
Butter lettuce, Apple, Mandarin Orange, Pomegranate and Candied Walnut Salad **

Main Course
Hello?! Of course, it’s TURKEY!

Side Dishes
Homemade Simple Stuffing **
Sweet Potatoes with Butter and Brown Sugar
Mashed Potatoes (use a potato ricer ... you will have the smoothest potatoes EVER!)
Cranberry Sauce **
Parker House rolls
A fabulous vegetable dish courtesy of my dear friend C.

Desserts
Confession: with so much cooking to do, a toddler to chase after and guests to entertain, I am buying pre-made crusts ... yes, you read that correctly)

Perfect Pumpkin Pie **
Pecan Pie **
Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce **
A non-traditional Thanksgiving dessert, Mocha Cake, courtesy of my dear friend C. because hey, everyone needs chocolate, even on Thanksgiving!

Wine
Beaujolais Nouveau ( a nice young red that goes beautifully with the whole meal ... though I am not a sommelier but in my humble opinion it is pretty darn good)
Diet coke (yes, I don't give it up for Thanksgiving)

RECIPES

Butter lettuce, Apple, Mandarin Orange, Pomegranate and Candied Walnut Salad
(serves 6)

Ingredients
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 8-ounce Fuji apple, halfed, cored, cut into matchstick-size strips
6 cups butter lettuce
6 mandarin orange slices, peeled
Pomegranate seeds
Candied walnuts

Details
Whisk first four ingredients in a small bowl. Season dressing with salt and pepper. Place apple in medium bowl and mix in 3 tablespoons of dressing.

Place butter lettuce in large bowl.  Add apples.  Toss, adding more dressing to taste.  Divide salad among 6 plates.  Garnish each with 1 mandarin orange slice and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and candied walnuts.

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit, September 2004

Homemade Simple Stuffing
(serves 8-10)

Ingredients
1 stick butter
1 large onion, diced
1.5 cups celery, diced
12 cups bread cubes, cut in 1/2 inch cubes and toasted
1.5 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 tablespoon thyme
1 cup chicken stock

Details
Toast bread cubes in oven until light brown.

Melt butter in a medium saute pan.  Add onion and celery and cook until tender. 

In a large bowl, place the toasted bread cubes and mix in the onion and celery.  Add salt, pepper, sage and thyme and toss until mixed.  Add chicken stock and toss until blended.

Place stuffing in lightly greased casserole dish and bake at 325 degrees until heated through about 30 minutes.

Cranberry Sauce


Ingredients
12 oz bag fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Details
Place water and sugar in a sauce pan and boil until sugar dissolves.  Add cranberries and cook over medium heat until cranberries pop.  Stir in orange zest and cool.

The sauce can be made up to 2-3 days ahead of tie.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie
(serves 8 to 10)
**Please note I am using a pre-made crust this year

Ingredients
9-inch pie crust
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin (I like the Libby's brand)
3/4 cup (packe) golden brown sugar)
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground cloves
3 large eggs
1.25 cups heavy whipping cream

Details
Cook pie crust according to directions.

Puree pumpkin in food processor.  Mix in next 6 ingredients.  Add eggs 1 at a time, pulsing after each addition.  Gradually add cream, processing just until blended.  Process 5 seconds longer.

Pour filling into warm crust.  Bake at 350 degrees until center is set, about 1 hour.  Cool completely on rack.  This pie can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover and chill.

Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit, November 2006

Pecan Pie
(serves 8)
**In the past, I have doubled the filling for this so that the pie is heaping with pecans.  The recipe below is for a single round of filling but feel free to double.  I think it makes the pie much better.

Ingredients
9-inch pie crust
3/4 stick unsalted butter
1.25 cups packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 cups pecan halves (1/2 pound)

Details
Cook pie crust according to directions.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add brown sugar, whisking until smooth.  Remove from heat and whisk in corn syrup, vanilla, zest and salt.  Lightly beat eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in corn syrup mixture.

Put pecans in pie shell and pour corn syrup mixture evenly over them.  Bake on hot baking sheet until filling is set, 50 minutes to 1 hour.  Cool completely.

Pie can be baked 1 day ahead and chilled.  Bring to room temperature before serving.
 
Recipe courtesy of Gourmet, November 2009

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
(serves 6)

Ingredients
Bread Pudding
2 cups half and half
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 cup (packed), plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 cups 1/2 inch cubes egg bread (about 10 oz)

Caramel sauce
1.25 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream

Powdered sugar

Details
For Pumpkin Bread Pudding:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk half and half, pumpkin, dark brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend.  Fold in bread cubes.  Transfer to 11x7 inch glass baking dish.  Let stand 15 minutes.  Bake pumpkin bread pudding until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

For caramel sauce:
Whisk brown sugar and butter in saucepan over medium heat until butter melts.  Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar over bread pudding.  Serve warm with caramel sauce.

Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit, November 2000

A soup to exist on

I fall into the category of people who could exist on soup. Not a watery, sad can of Campbell’s soup with mystery meat they call chicken but rather hearty, homemade concoctions packed with vegetables.

If you are following Weekend Gourmet, you’ve seen a few of my favorites like Perfect Chicken soup, Lentil soup and Tortilla soup. These have been in my soup repertoire for a few years but this fall, I decided to experiment with a few new soups to change things up.

Without further ado, please welcome Potato Pancetta soup to the blog. I could exist on this soup.  The broth alone, which is enriched with the smoky flavor of pancetta, is to die for.

Cream of Potato soup has always been one of my favorites. In my opinion, this perfectly lovely soup has been bastardized by chain restaurants into a clumpy mess most commonly called Baked Potato Soup. Now, I am not one to hold back when it comes to adding cream to soup but seriously, the most commonly found version I alluded to is like a heart attack in a bowl. And the worst part is, it’s not even that good! The potatoes get lost in a mess of gloppy cream and there isn’t any complex flavor to the broth.

On Sunday, I set out to create the perfect potato soup. I started by melting butter in my favorite soup pot along with two cloves garlic that I minced and half of an onion, chopped. To the browning garlic, I added five slices of pancetta which I had chopped to smithereens. This was a nice way to take out some post-election aggression.

 There is no better smell than that of pancetta browning in a pan with garlic and onion. My mouth was watering about two minutes into this new recipe which couldn’t be a bad sign.

Then, I added in carrots and celery and sautéed the mixture until the vegetables started to soften.

Next to the pancetta, the main star of this dish would be the buttery yukon gold potatoes.

I peeled (okay, I missed a few spots here and there because I absolutely detest peeling potatoes) and diced five to six potatoes. Then, I added them to the vegetable and pancetta mixture and threw in one teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Finally, I added one and a half containers of chicken broth. I prefer the Progresso brand (low sodium) if I don’t have time to make my own.

Let the soup simmer on the stove and once the potatoes are soft, strain out half the potatoes from the soup and place in a small bowl. To the potatoes, add one cup of whole milk. Mash the potatoes in the milk. Then, add the mixture back to the rest of the soup. You are left with a pot of creamy potato and pancetta goodness.

Can life get any better? Not really.

Perfect Potato Pancetta Soup
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
5 slices pancetta, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3/4 cup carrots, chopped
5-6 yukon gold potatoes, diced
1 large container chicken broth (add another half of a container of broth if you want a thinner soup)
1 cup whole milk

Details
Place a large soup pot over medium heat and melt butter.  Add garlic, pancetta and onion and cook until lightly browned.  Add carrots and celery and cook until slightly tender.  Add diced potatoes to the mixture.

Add chicken broth.  Allow soup to cook over medium heat until potatoes are soft.  Once soft, strain half of the potatoes (there may be some of the other ingredients mixed in and this is okay) and place in a medium bowl.  Add milk to the mixture and mash. 

Return the mashed mixture to the remainder of the soup in the pot and stir.  Cook for five more minutes and serve.